I remember my first day at Amarillo Area Foundation like it was yesterday. I had left marketing positions at other organizations to move to the program side of life. Honestly, my goal was to parlay that program position into an unestablished marketing role at the Foundation. So, it was a total shock the first day on the job when our CEO, Clay, stopped me in the copy room and said, “If I am honest, Broc, I wanted to hire you so you could help us with marketing on the AAF side of things.” I played it really cool, but I did a little dance when I got back to my office.
That was one of my first interactions with Clay Stribling, and from that day forward, we formed a partnership of sorts to message the incredible work the Foundation does in our region. So, it wasn’t too long after that we had a marketing meeting, and Clay said, “I am tired of the Board and fellow CEOs telling me that we are the best-kept secret in the Texas Panhandle.” I paused for a minute and followed up with, “Then let’s tell them all who we are and how we operate,” I continued, “I think we should demystify our work and really give people the bird’s-eye view of what we do.” He agreed, and we started to develop a plan.
I first needed the history of the Organization. One of Clay’s favorite quotes is, “We see so far because we stand on the shoulders of giants.” He went in-depth about how Mr. and Mrs. Harrington were the catalysts of how the Foundations formed and how our responsibility was to continue their legacy and keep their names and relevance in an ever-changing world. He was adamant that we could not let their legacies be detached from our work or who we were. He had a second saying he repeated throughout my years at AAF: “Planting trees whose shade they will never sit under.” He would share the names of many of the donors whose funds are held at the Foundation and how they lived this proverb in their lives.
I learned very quickly that Clay’s leadership style was unique and special. He charged you with the job of carrying out an agreed-upon goal and then empowered you to do such work. He would check in and meet with you to see the progress, troubleshoot sticking points, and always encourage you that you had what it took to accomplish this. He did more than this; he was always objective in how you did it, but he was masterful in asking what we dubbed “Clayisms” at every turn. He would introduce these questions to poke holes in your narrative because as a trained lawyer, he could see things from so many vantage points. In the end, you delivered a better product, and the Foundation’s impressive work was even more strengthened. I will never forget the “Clayisms” when I do things in my work.
Clay was quiet about himself often. Sure, he would talk about how proud he was of his son and his family, but he was mum on himself. One day, I just started asking him personal questions about his background; my inner journalist always wanted to know who and what shaped the leaders I was under. He talked fondly about growing up in the country just outside of Hereford. His time in the community shaped so much of who he was, and his pride in his upbringing was palpable. He sheepishly shared the details of the rock band he had formed in college and how he had a season of lacking direction. His time getting his undergraduate degree at WTAMU seemed to spur him to pursue a law degree. He has a history of being a lawyer. Still, you could tell that work didn’t fulfill his need for self-actualization, but it was more profound and connected to improving his community.
He shared with me the fateful day when his dad asked him what kind of work he wanted to accomplish. Clay, holding the paper, with the news that Amarillo Area Foundation was looking to hire a new CEO. He looked at his dad and said, “This is the work I want to do.” It was his dad who encouraged him to apply for the CEO/President position at the Foundation. He didn’t walk in without experience; he had served on many nonprofit boards in our region. He applied and was hired to be only the 4th CEO of our Organization.
He wasted no time – jumping in at the beginning to steer the ship in a profoundly new direction. One of his first tasks was to rebrand the Organization. Updating the logos of both the Amarillo Area Foundation and The Don and Sybil Harrington Foundation was the first step in what Clay saw as the potential to begin newness in our mission. That was perhaps his next step, updating the mission to Improve quality of life for Texas Panhandle Residents. This simplified the former mission and gave a little more freedom to tackle the things that threatened quality of life.
In his time with our organization, he worked with staff to double the size of the endowment, which means our work will continue into perpetuity. That is not a small task, and we cannot overstate how that is part of his legacy. This is a glimpse into how strategically he thought about his work. It was immensely personal to him. He felt responsible, like a vest he wore, and it guided his steps and actions with the staff and their work.
The Panhandle Gives is one of those guiding steps Clay utilized to change the philanthropic landscapes of our region. In the initial meetings, Clay was very focused on the date of when we should have a giving day. It has been a subject that nonprofit organizations have approached us often because the most significant giving day in the world is so close – the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. We looked at Spring and Fall dates, but Clay did not want to step on any other campaigns that happened then. We discussed #GivingTuesday and how it might be a good thing to attach ourselves to as that day continues to rise in relevance. Clay said in that meeting, “Since we are smaller, I think attaching ourselves to something that is of national significance would only work in our favor.” I will never forget those intuitive moments of Clay’s ability to see beyond the present moment. He was a visionary for sure. He could see where he wanted to be, and then boldly empower his team to get there. The success of The Panhandle Gives is squarely on his shoulders and his ability to see dimly in the future a bright spot of something spectacular.
Professionally, Clay was very approachable and involved in things. Often, people would come to him with an idea for funding. Clay would enhance the idea because his understanding of how things are connected but disjointed allowed him to utilize collaboration to make an idea even bigger than it had begun. He understood the pulse of our region’s nonprofit landscape and worked to get the players in the room to create even greater progress to the quality of life test he was constantly performing. He always said he worked with the best team, and that shows what kind of leader he was.
So, to say that we are grieving would be an understatement. We are very sad to see our friend and colleague pass on from this world. But we pause and acknowledge that he was masterful at leaving a thing better than he found it. The work will continue because he empowered us to do that with excellence and dedication to the mission.
Also, we must acknowledge that we see so far because Clay was a giant to us. In his time at the Foundation, he planted trees that he did not sit under the shade of, but generations of people in our region will enjoy for their lifetime. Clay Stribling is a modern-day giant and hero who wore a tie, not a cape.
